Outside Looking In
by Sophia Hawkins
Summary: It is a lawyer's job to defend his client in court, but what happens when the daughter of a defense attorney becomes the victim of a violent assault?
1. Chapter 1

Outside Looking In

Olivia had been asleep for two hours before she heard her cell phone go off. Not even bothering to turn on the light, she'd picked up her phone and answered, and as many times before during her career in SVU, she'd jumped out of bed and gotten dressed, and notified the other detectives about the call.

It was 2:30 in the morning when they reached the hospital, the unis were waiting by the front desk to report in to the sergeant what they'd gathered so far.

"We got two calls from the same area, the first one was for a car crash," a young rookie told Olivia, "someone else called a few minutes later to report a possible sexual assault."

"Get an ID on the vic?" Olivia asked.

"No purse, no driver's license, we figure she's about 18, we found her in a daze, she didn't seem to have any idea where the hell she was, she was also equally oblivious to the fact she nearly plowed the car into a crowd of people at a block party."

"Get the ID off the registration?" Fin asked.

"Get this," a female uniform cop told them, "it was reported stolen around the same time of the crash. Wherever she came from, she took somebody else's car, which incidentally was originally parked half a mile from where she crashed. The owner was partying with some friends."

"They left the keys in the car?" Rollins asked in disbelief.

"Nobody ever said New York was the city of intellects," she answered.

"The partygoers decided to give her a piece of their mind and about ripped the door off, then they saw the blood on the seat and running down her legs, somebody called it in," the other uni added, "They thought it might've been from the crash."

The woman officer told the SVU detectives, "I know rape when I see it. The doctors are doing a kit right now."

"Has she said anything since being brought in?" Olivia asked.

"Bits and pieces, still can't get a name off of her. On the ride over in the ambulance, she did say she wanted her father," the female cop said, "but with no name to go on, her phone is God knows where and she couldn't remember the number…"

"Okay, we'll take it from here," Olivia told them, "Carisi, you and Rollins go with them back to the party and start canvassing the area, see if anybody saw anything before the crash, see if anybody knows this girl."

"Right, Sergeant," Carisi nodded.

"On it," Rollins said.

"Excuse me," Olivia flashed her badge to the nurse at the front desk, "Sergeant Benson, Detective Tutuola, SVU, we need information about a young woman brought in earlier, a possible rape victim. Can you tell me what exam room she was taken to?"

"Just a moment," the nurse said.

* * *

"We just finished the rape kit, got her settled in a room for the night until we can get back all the test results on her," the doctor told Fin and Olivia, "got a cop coming to take the kit to the lab right now."

"In the meantime what can you tell us about her?" Olivia asked.

"Brutalized," he answered, "Lot of bruises, lot of handprints, a possible concussion, for what it's worth, whoever did this was very single minded, no evidence of oral or anal penetration, little comfort there. The silver lining is it shouldn't be hard to find this guy."

"Why?" Olivia asked.

"We were able to collect semen samples, the bastard that did this didn't bother with a condom," the doctor told them, "pray he did something before and his DNA is on file."

"More like pray somebody got _around_ to putting it on file," Olivia said.

"She tell you her name?" Fin asked.

"Alexis, no last name."

"The unis who brought her in said she was asking for her father," Olivia said, "Did she tell you his name?"

"No, but I wonder if that might have something to do with what she _has_ been saying," the doctor said, "Even before we did a tox screen, all she'd say was 'not my fault, I'm not drunk, I didn't take drugs'."

"Cops at the scene said she was dazed," Fin said, "either she was date raped…"

"Or the trauma of the rape sent her into shock," Olivia finished his thought.

"I know you have to question her about what happened, and I'm not going to stop you," the doctor told them, "but I'm warning you in advance, don't expect much. We still have more tests to run to determine the total amount of damage, and until we know the full extent of what happened to her, we're not going to know if she'll even be _able_ to tell you, _or_ remember herself. I…" the doctor got a strange look on his face.

"What is it?" Olivia asked.

The doctor reached under his coat and felt his pockets. "My phone's gone, I…"

Olivia's eyes widened as it dawned on them what must've transpired in the exam room.

"She stole your phone?"

"Maybe she remembered Pop's number," Fin said.

"Oh boy," Olivia sighed. She told the doctor, "we'll see what she can remember. Thank you, Doctor."

They walked away from him, and once they turned the corner, Fin commented, "Girl's a pickpocket, this should be interesting. Think she picked that up from her dad?"

Olivia ignored the question and only said in response, "We know how well interviews go when a parent in disbelief shows up."

"Yeah, they show up and the kid shuts down," he agreed, "usually because she _was_ doing something that she _wasn't_ supposed to."

"Yeah, so let's find out what she can tell us before somebody tries to censor it," Olivia told him.

On their way down the long and winding corridor, Olivia asked Fin, "So you think she was telling the truth about not being intoxicated?"

"Could be practicing her story for when Daddy Dearest comes down," he responded, "we've seen it plenty of times."

"They don't realize lying about any part of their attack jeopardizes the chance of them getting justice," Olivia said.

"Some people can live without justice easier than they can their parents' respect," Fin replied.

"You don't really believe that," Olivia said.

"Not about what I believe," Fin told her, "If _they_ didn't believe it, we wouldn't have these problems when we investigate."

"And then they wouldn't have the problem of cheating themselves out of the chance to get closure by facing their attackers in open court. It's hard enough to do as is, it's harder when you sabotage yourself by lying and the defense can use it against you to create reasonable doubt," Olivia added.

"Preaching to the choir, I always told Ken growing up 'if you get in trouble, get a lawyer, but if you get in trouble with _me_ , _don't lie_ '. This should be the room down here," Fin said as they turned another corner.

They heard the elevator ding as it reached the floor, and they just happened to see who stepped out of it.

"John Buchanan," Olivia addressed the defense attorney, "What're you doing here?"

The man whom Olivia had testified before on cross-exam many times in court, clearly was not on top of his game tonight. He looked like he hadn't slept, and his clothes were disheveled, clearly a sign he'd been gotten out of bed and had hurriedly dressed. It was obvious from the look on his face that he was just as surprised to see them there as they were to see him.

Despite his appearance, he was perfectly coherent as he told them, "My daughter called and said I had to come and pick her up. They told me this is her room."

"Your… _daughter_?" Olivia felt her eyes bug out.

The defense attorney looked at Olivia, then at Fin, and did a double take. "Wait a minute, what are _you_ doing here?" the expression on his face suddenly changed as he demanded to know, "What the hell's going on?"


	2. Chapter 2

"You're telling me that some bastard raped my daughter?" Buchanan asked Olivia and Fin.

"That's what we're here to find out, we have to ask Alexis about what happened tonight," Olivia said.

"You are not going _anywhere_ near my daughter," he told the SVU detectives.

"All due respect, that's not an option," Olivia told him, "We're here because the doctor who examined her said she was raped, and we're not leaving until we talk with her."

"No way," the defense attorney shook his head, "She's a minor, I won't allow it."

"John, somebody did something _horrible_ to your daughter," Olivia said, "don't you want the son of a bitch who's responsible for it to be arrested?"

"It's not that, Liv," Fin told her, and looked at Buchanan, "he thinks because of our history in the courtroom that we're not going to help his kid. Relax, counselor, incase you forgot, _we_ 're the ones that make a habit of _believing_ the victims."

"You can try and go over our heads on this," Olivia said to the lawyer, "but even if you get us taken off of this, _somebody_ is going to come and question your daughter and it _will_ be somebody from our office. If you want to help your daughter, the best thing you can do is let us talk to her."

It was obvious from the look on Buchanan's face that he wasn't entirely sold on that idea, so Olivia decided to try another approach.

"You _do_ want to help her, don't you?"

For the first time since they'd dealt with him in court, gone was the smug lawyer exterior, now he looked like a hundred other fathers they'd seen in their work, all in the exact same position he was in now.

"Of _course_."

Olivia looked him dead in the eyes to get her point across. "Then trust me," she told him, "and let us do our job."

Buchanan inhaled a sharp breath as he thought about it. He told them, "I'm staying for the interview."

"Alexis is the victim," Olivia said, "It's her wishes we need to respect right now. If she doesn't want to talk with you present, you're going to have to leave if you want us to catch this guy."

He merely nodded, and headed for the door. Olivia and Fin let him enter first and stepped in behind him.

Alexis Buchanan was, just a few hours ago, a beautiful, tall, thin girl with long blonde hair. Now she was dressed in a hospital gown and a mess of bruises and stitches, a cut over one eye had been sutured shut. Somehow she had managed to fall asleep once the doctor left and was curled on her side in a ball on the hospital bed.

"Alexis, honey," John approached the bed and hovered over her, "can you hear me?"

The teen girl's eyes fluttered, then they opened, and recognition started to come back to her.

"Dad," she said in a low voice as she moved onto her back and stretched her body straight. She pushed herself up into a sitting position and told him, "It wasn't my fault, I didn't do anything."

"Of course you didn't, sweetie, I know that," Buchanan told his daughter.

Alexis's eyes roamed to the people standing behind her father. "Who's that? Are they cops?"

"That's nobody, honey," he said, "they were just leaving."

"No, no," Alexis sat up straighter and groaned, "I have to give them a statement or something. I want them to find the bastard who raped me and throw his ass in jail."

"Alexis," Olivia went over to the hospital bed, "My name is Sergeant Olivia Benson, this is Detective Odafin Tutuola, we're from Special Victims."

"The sex cops," she said, "Somebody already took my clothes for testing."

"We know," Olivia said, "we need you to tell us what happened tonight."

She shook her head, "It wasn't my fault, I wasn't drunk, I didn't take any drugs…I…don't know what happened."

"Okay, we'll take it one step at a time," Olivia told her, "where were you tonight?"

"She was at the library," Buchanan answered.

"Till midnight?" Fin asked in a 'even you can't believe that' tone.

Olivia shot him a warning glare, then returned her attention to the teenager laying in the bed.

"I _was_ at the library," Alexis told them, "at first."

And that was where Buchanan's knowledge of his daughter's activities for the night ended.

"What do you mean at first?" he asked her.

Olivia saw the girl tense up. Fin put a hand on the lawyer's shoulder and suggested they move outside.

"No, wait," Alexis said, and after a slight hesitation she told them, "I left the library at closing…then I went to hang out with some of my friends. They were going to a party, and I went with them."

"Which friends?" Buchanan asked, "What party?"

"Mr. Buchanan," Olivia turned to him.

"I don't know, we just showed up," Alexis told them, "I didn't know anybody there…no wait…Sky was there."

"Who's Sky?" Olivia asked.

"A boy in her class," Buchanan answered for her, "she's had a little crush on him for months, but they're not serious. There's no way he did this, he's a good kid."

Olivia was very close to losing it with him. "Okay, Mr. Buchanan, I need Alexis to tell me everything she knows, so why don't you and Detective Tutuola go outside and you can answer some of his questions?"

"Think that's a good idea," Fin said, grabbing Buchanan before he had a chance to protest, "We'll be right outside."

"I didn't say yes!" Alexis screamed out of nowhere.

All three adults turned to look at her.

"You told him no?" Olivia asked.

"At first," Alexis looked to the ceiling, "I tried to get away, but I couldn't. Then I just stopped fighting, there wasn't any point. I didn't say no again, it didn't help."

"Alexis, do you know who it was that attacked you?" Olivia asked her.

"I know him," she answered distantly, "but I can't remember his name."

Olivia and Fin looked at each other.

"I'm not lying," the teenager told them weakly, "I just can't remember."

"That's okay," Olivia said, "that's why we do follow-up interviews, so we can get all the information and put it together."

"Can you record me?" she asked, "Can I make a statement for the record that I'm not lying if I remember things differently later?"

"That's not really necessary," Olivia answered, "but we can do that if you'd like."

"I know," Alexis sounded like she was drifting away, but she persisted, "I know it's illegal to lie to police…I'm not lying, I just can't…remember everything."

"We can come back in the morning and see how you're doing," Olivia said, "your memory might be better after you get some rest. Alexis…" the girl had just closed her eyes and looked asleep, at the sound of her name she opened them and looked at the sergeant. "Did you take the doctor's cell phone?"

"What?" Buchanan asked, "You're not seriously…"

"She called you, didn't she?" Fin asked, "Her phone's gone, so's her purse, how do you think she contacted you?"

The defense attorney slowly took in everything that Fin was saying. "My God!" he said in a low tone so his daughter wouldn't hear.

"I couldn't find my phone," Alexis closed her eyes again, "I wanted to call my dad…" she reached under her pillow and took out the phone she'd hidden.

"I got this," Fin took the phone and headed for the door.

"I'm so tired," Alexis said as she pulled the blanket up, "I want to sleep."

"Alright," Olivia told her, "We'll come back tomorrow and see what's changed."

Buchanan's daughter was dead to the world as soon as Olivia finished talking. She turned and saw the girl's father standing a few feet back from the bed, looking absolutely lost. But Olivia knew, she knew that Buchanan knew exactly where this was going to go, and that's why he was so worried now.

* * *

"Alright," Rollins said as she put a picture of Alexis up on the board, "Alexis Buchanan, 16 years old, raped sometime between 10 and midnight last night at," she then put up some pictures they'd gotten from a canvass of the block the house party was at, "this party, with about a hundred other people there, and no witnesses."

"People saw her come in with her friends," Carisi added, "but after that nobody remembers seeing her until she left, which was quick and unannounced, even her friends hadn't noticed she was gone."

"Some friends," Fin commented.

"She's a good kid," Rollins said, "Buchanan has her enrolled in one of the most expensive private schools in the state, she's a straight-A student, we talked to her teachers, the principal, nobody had any problem with her."

"What about this boy, Sky?" Olivia asked.

"Richard Schuyler, also 16 years old," Fin explained, "Not the best student but he's not looking good for the rape, we went out to the school to speak with him and he about wet himself when he heard we were cops." Fin shook his head, "no way this punk's got it in him to rape a girl."

"Did he see anything at the party?" Olivia asked.

"Too much smoke and flashing lights," Carisi explained, "and apparently Alexis didn't announce her arrival to him, he didn't even know she was there."

"That or," Rollins offered, "They could've cooked that story up so Buchanan wouldn't find out they were together. He thinks his daughter's Snow White."

"So far we don't have any evidence to the contrary," Olivia pointed out, "The tox screen _did_ come back negative, this girl was stone cold sober when she was raped."

"So what happened?" Carisi asked.

"Trauma and shock can do…unbelievable things to a person," Rollins explained, "as soon as the rape's over and she's alone, she's in survival mode, her only thought is to get away, she gets in the first car she finds and drives out of there."

"And when she's in the hospital, she calls her dad," Fin pointed out, "Who didn't know what happened to her, all he knew was she was in the hospital…and if she was in such shock, how did she know what hospital to tell him?"

"No drugs, no alcohol, no GHB," Carisi said, "Either she's a damn good actress, or something else happened we don't know about."

"Well she's not faking a concussion," Olivia said, "Or the stitches she had to get, or the bruises, or the blood that CSU has been tearing apart the stolen car to analyze. There's no way anybody could write this one off as just rough consensual sex."

"Won't stop them from trying," Fin said.

"Assuming this even goes to trial," Carisi said, "This guy Buchanan's trying to stonewall every inch of this investigation."

"Because he knows if it goes to trial," Olivia explained, "Somebody is going to do to his daughter what he has done to all of our victims over the years."

"Makes sense why the expensive private school," Rollins told them, "You can't get any lesser likely place where any of the kids could be related to any of the victims her father's screwed over on cross."

"I really don't get it," Carisi said to the others, "I mean I'm planning to become a lawyer but…defense attorneys, how the hell do they live with themselves? How do they explain to their kids what they do?"

"I don't think John has," Olivia answered, "Otherwise Alexis wouldn't be so willing to talk to us. She honestly thinks as long as she tells the truth, she won't have anything to worry about in court."

"No 16 year old is that naïve," Fin said.

"Buchanan seems to have gone to a lot of trouble to keep his daughter sheltered from a large part of reality," Olivia replied.

"Well, her ignorance gives us a stronger case," Rollins said, "It's just too bad once she's on the stand it's all going to blow up in her face."

"One step at a time," Olivia told her, "First, we have to find the son of a bitch who did it. Alexis said she _knew_ her attacker."

"Now comes the fun part," Fin dryly commented, "Ripping apart this family to find their dirty laundry."


End file.
